How I Will Miss Terrorizing You
by justinxx
Summary: The final panels of The Killing Joke through Joker's POV.


The pouring rain grew heavy, beating down on my thin body like the punches to a homeless man who hasn't had a decent meal for days.

I hear myself beginning to chuckle as I reach into the pockets of my drenched, purple jacket. I can feel him walking towards me from the carnival, fueled by rage and weakened by fatigue.

I'm gonna go out with a bang.

Gripping the handle of the cold revolver with my gloved hand, I yank it out of my gun holster and face the Bat with a huge grin on my face.

My bloodshot eyes are wide open and my wavy hair is plastered to my face as I giggle at old Bat-Brain. He was intending to grab me before I pulled out my revolver. Typical ol' Batsy.

He notices the gun in my hand. Knowing the way the brute works, I expected him to throw some rodent shaped gadget at me, but he did nothing. The towering Rat just stared silently and sadly, water dripping off his cowl and exposed rugged cheeks.

You should have seen the look on his face.

Cackling, I pull the trigger. Out of the barrel pops a white flag that reads, "CLICK CLICK CLICK."

The Bat didn't flinch.

I stopped laughing. It wasn't as funny as it used to be.

"God damn it..." I swear joylessly. "It's empty!"

Dark green strands of hair fall once more over my face, sticking to my nose and forehead. There is nothing to hear but the patting of rain against muddy grass.

I sigh and tilt my head slightly to the right. "Well? What are you waiting for? I shot a defenseless girl. I terrorized an old man. Why don't you kick the hell out of me and get a standing ovation from the public gallery?"

Standing there in his gray and blue Halloween costume, he utters in his gravelly voice, "Because I'm doing this one by the book… and because I want to."

Peering over my shoulder, clothes soaked, I listen.

"Do you understand? I don't want to hurt you. I don't want either of us to end up killing the other," he says. "But we're both running out of alternatives… and we both know it."

Under different circumstances, I would have been flattered. I would've even retorted with a joke or a kick to the stomach. But Bat-Brain had a point. This has gone for too long. It was only a matter of time before one of us got the last laugh.

"Maybe it all hinges on tonight. Maybe this is our last chance to sort this bloody mess out. If you don't take it, then we're locked onto a suicide course. Both of us. To the death."

I hear his cape flap in the wind like a flag, dark and intimidating like the shadow of a beast. Here I am, body bent over the ground and him, standing stoically, once again.

I wish he wasn't right.

"It doesn't have to end like that. I don't know what it was that bent your life out of shape, but who knows? Maybe I've been there too. Maybe I can help."

I stand up with my head hung low and eyes closed. The rain pelts against my jacket and his suit, the wild tapping reminding me of the bursts of a machine gun.

"We could work together. I could rehabilitate you. You needn't be out there on the edge any more. You needn't be alone. We don't have to kill each other. What do you say?" He asks.

I look over to him, the straps of my jacket loosened and the bruises on my body stinging. He looks like he genuinely wants to help me. How could he? After all that I've done?

I want to believe him, but I know how this ends. It's too late to save me.

I smile weakly, hand covering my face. "No. I'm sorry but… no. It's too late for that. Far too late."

I begin to laugh, hiding the fact that I know what will happen soon.

"Y'know, it's funny… this situation. It reminds me of a joke..." I giggle.

Bats stands beside me as he listens and looks over the horizon. The sun is peeking slightly through the dark clouds.

"See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum..."

I feel myself walk and gesture with my hands mindlessly as I usually do when I dish out a joke. He just stands there listening.

"…And one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum anymore. They decide they're going to escape!"

Arms outstretched, I look over at beautiful Gotham City in the distance.

How I will miss terrorizing you.

"So, like, they get up onto the roof. And there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moonlight… stretching away to freedom."

"Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend daredn't make the leap. Y'see… y'see, he's afraid of falling."

"So then, the first guy has an idea… he says, 'Hey! I have my flashlight with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me!'"

Hands out, I continue. "B-but the second guy just shakes his head. He suh-says… he says, 'Wh-What do you think I am? _Crazy?_ '"

Turning toward the Bat with a large grin on my face, I point. "'You'd turn it off when I was halfway across!'"

I start laughing uncontrollably. The one always tickled my funny bone.

He just gazes blankly as I double over laughing.

"Oh, do excuse me… ha ha ha ha ha!"

He soon does what I hoped he would do.

He starts to laugh.

On our final night together, Bats and I are standing in the middle of a carnival, laughing together. I can hear the sirens of the GCPD nearing us.

I wouldn't have wanted this any other way.

He grabs hold of my throat tightly, squeezing and shaking the life out of me as I try to gasp for air, laughing as I do it.

The rain beats on us more viciously now, and the sound of police sirens and our laughter fills my ears like a beautiful song.

It's a funny world we live in.


End file.
